Happy new name

It’s a new year, and I decided to change the host name of this server. It has been called terror.snm-hgkz.ch for several years now; from now on it’s rca.snm-hgkz.ch. “rca” being the short version of my real name, which I use in other places too. It’s not terribly inventive, I know.

When I originally chose terror, it was because it matched a range of other machines I had. If you’re familiar with networks, you know that it’s a common practice to give different devices names from the same category. Greek gods, planets, elements, names of famous philosophers, that sort of thing. Each machine gets one name. My machines had names from negative emotions: horror, panic, fear, despair and terror. In 1999, the word “terror” was a lot more innocent than it is today.

I don’t want to suggest that I condone terrorism or am connected to it in any way. If that means changing the host name of my dearest machine, that’s fine. Normally, host names aren’t supposed to change at all, but this is an exception I’m willing to make.

The old host name remains valid, but all links only point to rca.snm-hgkz.ch from now on, so terror should cease to exist soon.